“What Do You Want? “: A Painful Question In Difficult Times

We all have difficult times in our lives. For example, rupture, loss of a job, an accident that limits us in many aspects of our daily life … All this will force us to ask a painful question that we will rethink everything that we take for granted that ‘do you want ? 

It is not easy to answer them quickly. In fact, this question can even surprise us and make us feel lost when answering it. Because  who really wonders what he wants? A lot of times we get carried away and set up autopilot. We’re so used to it that we don’t even wonder if our life is really as we imagined it.

We don’t do any of that until something happens that causes us to ask ourselves questions. It is as if, until that precise moment, we were in a very peaceful comfort zone. However, this event leaves us violently. Some people are very grateful for it and start enjoying life like they never had before. Others, on the other hand, stagnate for a very long time in one place. They fail to move forward or backward and end up being consumed.

A painful and decisive question

We may wonder why the painful “ what do you want” question  is so difficult. The reason is simple: because it is decisive. In a way, it involves change, and as we all know, a  lot of people are not very supportive of change.

Even if the changes do not imply anything negative, the circumstances we are talking about in this article are not at all positive. Therefore,  our vision is filled with absolute negativity:  nothing that can happen to us will be positive.

Take the example of a young woman who suffered in a car accident and lost one of her legs. Her name is Paola Antonini. She is currently a model, has a Youtube channel and inspires many people whether they have had an amputee or not.

Surpassing oneself by Paola Antonini

If we dig a little deeper into the story of this young woman, we will find that after waiting for almost an hour for the ambulance following her accident, being fully aware of what was going on and enduring incredible pain,  the only thing she wanted was to live.

The rehabilitation was very hard. The prosthesis hurt her, but at least she could walk! Paola asked herself a painful question after her operation:  what do I want? Today, she travels a lot, with a smile and words of encouragement for others. For her, the accident was not a misfortune but an opportunity to regain control of her life and live it in a much more intense way.

Accepting change hurts

Once at this point, the question  “what do I want?” may not be that painful. Change, on the other hand, will be, as will keeping moving forward when something has changed our life. However, many of these changes will be positive and force us to leave behind patterns of behavior that were not beneficial to us.

The fact that our spouse leaves us can be an opportunity to end the emotional addiction that we never wanted to see; if we are fired from our work, it may be because it is time to take on something or to focus on this project that is close to our hearts. We need to find out what we always put off, what really excites us and put our fear aside. It’s time to move on!

It is true that it will be difficult, at least in the beginning. However, the question  “what do you want?” can be very clear deep inside. The problem is that  our fears prevent us from taking action. In difficult times, it is necessary to stop, take a break to feel this pain and make a beneficial decision. Not avoiding pain, not running away from it, moving forward and overcoming it will eventually transform it. Pain will take the form of tranquility, hope and peace.

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